"In our story, the world is experiencing its first wave of superpower 'activations' - and it's immediately turning into a crisis," Carey told Comic Book Resources. "Most people who develop powers use them for evil ends.

"A smaller number become heroes, but even the heroes often don't stay that way. After a few weeks or months of trying to defend society against the villains' assaults, they switch to the other side.

"So we're left with a few well-meaning guardians trying to stem a rising tide. They're outnumbered and outgunned at every turn, and as more and more supers appear the odds just keep on getting worse. Against that backdrop, our main character, Leo Winters, is involved in a police action trying to stop a group of villains from committing a robbery.

"But things go very badly for him and for the people around him. So he makes a fateful decision, which seems to make a lot of sense - but which will put him and his family on the front line in a war that's bigger and wider than anyone suspects.

"â€¨â€¨I love superhero stories when they're true to their own logic. This is not a world where there are a thousand superheroes with a thousand different origins. There's a single reason for everything that happens in this story, and the uncovering of that reason is part of the main structural spine of the story. For Leo, it's going to be a pretty devastating reveal."